Devices for clamping onto hoses or sleeves, or for attaching and securing flexible sleeves, such as hoses or elastomeric couplings to pipes, tubes, rods, etc. are well known in the art. Particularly well known are the hose clamps used widely for attaching radiator hoses on autombile cooling systems which have a loop or band of metal with slots that are engaged by a screw. Other well known hose clamps include designs having various wire loop configurations that may be tightened around a hose or sleeve with a screw or other means.
However, it is also well known that the conventional hose clamps or other apparatus for clamping onto hoses or for attaching flexible sleeves to rigid objects are often difficult to attach, much less attach quickly. The primary difficulties usually involve maneuvering the clamp into place so that it may be tightened and/or getting the hose or sleeve onto the pipe or rigid tube. Often, in pursuit of a firm seal hose to pipe or rigid fitting, the pipe, hose and clamp are designed with very close tolerances, making initial placement awkward and difficult.
Other known means for placing elastic covers or clamps on cylindrical objects include the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,798 to Sievert which includes an elastic tubular cover member supported in stretched condition on an easily removable one-piece rigid spiral core having interconnected adjacent coils. Disadvantages with this particular structure include the problem that the release of the cover is not particularly quick, nor can the cover be adapted to form a relatively short clamp structure.
Evans, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,746 teach a recoverable tubular article comprising an elastomeric sleeve held in a radially expanded or extended condition, which is capable of recovering to its pre-expanded condition upon the removal of an outer restraint. Here the outer restraint is bonded to the sleeve and releases the sleeve upon the application of a solvent. A similar recoverable tubular article is taught by Krackeler, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,970 where the outer restraint is a spiral structure that is removed and released from the collapsing sleeve by peeling the spiral support from one end.
There is additionally U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,328 which teaches a removable heat-recoverable closure assembly for a substrate which includes a heat-recoverable closure and a flexible wire to be interposed between the closure and the substrate. The wire has sufficient flexibility and sufficient strength so that in can be pulled through the wall of the closure for removal of the heat-recovered closure from the substrate. The sleeve in this patent is initially applied by one of the means described in previously mentioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,070,746 and 4,338,970.
Finally, there is known U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,440 to Keith which operates similarly to the device taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,798 previously mentioned, that teaches an elastic cover for couplings or splices comprising a radially stretched and axially twisted elastic cover supported on a core of spirally wound polymeric material which is progressively removed from within the cover member as a continuous narrow strip.
However, each of these devices suffer from the same disadvantage mentioned earlier, that is, the clamping action is performed gradually rather than quickly. This problem slows assembly work. In addition, none of these covers may be adapted well to relatively short, ring-like structures where a long sleeve is not required or preferred, or even feasible.